{"id":9533,"date":"2026-09-26T21:10:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/?p=9533"},"modified":"2026-09-26T21:10:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:10:42","slug":"sad-news-tarzan-star-ron-elys-final-years-marked-by-deep-family-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/?p=9533","title":{"rendered":"SAD NEWS: Tarzan Star Ron Ely\u2019s Final Years Marked by Deep Family Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"405\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/825273611_122200414142937155_8240376545569429594_n_cleanup.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9534\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/825273611_122200414142937155_8240376545569429594_n_cleanup.png 405w, https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/825273611_122200414142937155_8240376545569429594_n_cleanup-169x300.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ron Ely, the actor widely remembered for playing Tarzan in the popular 1960s television series, died at the age of 86.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The later years of his life were overshadowed by a devastating family tragedy. In 2019, his wife of 35 years, Valerie Lundeen Ely, died after being fatally stabbed at the family\u2019s Santa Barbara home. Valerie, 62, had previously worked as a flight attendant and had been crowned Miss Florida USA in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their son, Cameron Ely, who was 30 at the time, was fatally shot by authorities at the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ron and Valerie had three children\u2014Kirsten, Kaitland, and Cameron\u2014and became grandparents in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ely stepped away from acting in 2001, making only a brief return to the screen in 2014. In 2020, he filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the sheriff\u2019s office, alleging that his son had been surrendering when authorities shot him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ron Ely, the actor widely remembered for playing Tarzan in the popular 1960s television series, died at the age of 86. The later years of his life&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9535,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533\/revisions\/9535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstoday365.today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}